Surgery for CMT Foot Deformities

June 17, 2006

Hello all,

I have been reading all of the mail concerning foot drop, and questions about

surgery and I thought that I would share my experience. I wrote in an earlier

ressponse of a surgeon here in Seattle that specializes in orthepedics for CMT.

At 23 my right foot had developed a bad foot drop as well as a bad roll. Because

of this, I had a terrible bone spur on the right side of my foot. This caused me

pain 24/7 and there just weren't enough drugs to eliviate that pain.

Anyway, I'll explain what he did. The good doctor took a tendon from somewhere

along my shin, shortened it, and re-attached it to my big toe.

Now, because of my roll, my foot had deformed. The bones naturally developed off

to the side (thats the best way that I can describe it). Look at your foot when

you stand. If it has been twisted for a while, you bones have probably

re-situated themselves to " go with the flow " . To take care of this, the doctor

literally " straghtened " everything out. Then he put a " bracket " just below the

big toe (never asked about this).

After this he put a long screw through the back of my foot, up through the

center. Then he put two long rods in a " V " formation on either side of the long

screw.

Now, as you can probably guess, this is major surgery. He actually does this all

in one fell swoop (other doctors have taken ex-rays and when I tell them it was

one surgery they're astounded). The recovery time is 8 to 10 weeks and 6 weeks

of that is complete " downtime " .

At the time, I was on Social Security disability and had Medicare. Medicare foot

the whole bill (the angels).

It has been 15 years since the surgery and to be honest my foot is trying to

roll again and when I visited the doctor because of a bunion that has developed

on my big toe he said that they may need to go in again, but not as extensive. I

have not had any drop foot and for 15 years my foot had no problems whatsoever.

I hope this gives some information to any of you that are looking for options.

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